I Really Hated Hair Spray, Until I Tried This One

If there's one thing I've learned in my plight to nail the ultimate curly hair routine, it's that curls need a helping hand if they're ever to last beyond the morning commute. You see, it simply takes a single waft of this icy, windy air to render each and every strand fluffy, puffy and flyaway. And the more each curl and coil drifts away from my shoulders, the straighter they get. By the time I get to work, I no longer have a head of pert curls but more a crown of chestnut-coloured candy floss. The problem is that I have an ingrained hatred of the one thing that could sort this problem once and for all: hair spray.

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I've just never gotten on with the stuff. I find it too sticky and too gritty—like each hair becomes layered in a coat of friction. Considering that I spend my entire workday unconsciously playing with my hair, that's just not the sensation I'm after. Without sounding too melodramatic—this is just hair spray after all—but Wella's new Eimi Mistify Me Light Hairspray (£12) has changed my mind about the stuff.

Firstly, it creates the most diffused haze of product, thanks to plenty of well-placed small holes in the "squirter" (technical term) so it trickles minuscule drops over the entire head, rather than simply pulverizing single patches like a patio tile pressure washer. Plus, the brand has taken particular care to include a super-strength propellent that forces the mist to spread far and wide.

It settles down to basically nothing. You can't see it, you can't feel it and you can hardly smell it—that over-lacquered furniture polish scent of traditional formulations turns my stomach. And as for the curls? Well, they're not only arriving at the office in one piece, but they're making it to after-work drinks too, which is practically miraculous, as it's usually at this point I give it all up and throw the whole lot into a topknot.